It was the worst of birds and the best of birders

[William H Kaempfer]

How about another mangled literary mis-quote?  February is the cruelest birding month!

 

I led a field trip today for the Boulder Audubon Society to the Peak-to-peak Highway area of Boulder County.  Unfortunately the winds tried to blow us back; at one point a Boulder Open Space Ranger cautioned us about staying in the area.  But we were there while the birds weren’t.  Total haul for a couple of hours in the mountains—2 Mountain Chickadees, 1 Pygmy Nuthatch, 1 Steller’s Jay, a few American Crows and Common Raven and maybe a Pine Siskin and couple of Dark-eyed Juncos.

 

It only took us a couple of hours to wise up and make the descent back to Lyons where we found a Brown Creeper in the town park, and a decent haul in the town cemetery including 6 Western Scrub Jays and 2 Lesser Goldfinches.  Everyone got on the lessers and we could compare them to an American in the same tree, so it was a nice learning experience.

 

One stop on the plains at McCaslin Lake turned up a few regular ducks for all to study.

 

Bill Kaempfer

Boulder